Luc Besson proudly celebrates gender equality with Valerian

Cara Delevingne has spoken about the differences between herself and her Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets co-star Dane DeHaan.

Luc Besson was careful to give his key characters equal weighting when making Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

The French filmmaker's latest project is based on the sci-fi comic series Valerian and Laureline, and sees Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne as the space-and-time-travelling agents.

Luc’s movie has been in the works since 2012, but the director is thrilled to have created a universe in which the central figures are on the same footing.

"I think I just pay the same attention to female and male," he told Britain's GQ magazine. "It’s true that in recent history, the last 50 years in cinema, it was about the man and the girl crying on the balcony. I always thought that it was unfair."

Luc added that he was happy with the way Dane and Cara bounced off of each other during casting. Though Cara was surprised she was paired with the 31-year-old, as they have such different personalities.

"That's the interesting thing. Because me and Dane are so different. Like, completely different. But we get on. I would never have put us together. Well, he's an incredibly dedicated and serious actor who's never been to a club before. And I'm kind of the opposite. Obviously, I love what I do and work very hard, but I learnt so much from him," she shared.

In fact, the British model and actress feels as if her energy rubbed off on her co-star, as she pushed him to laugh and joke while filming the sci-fi thriller.

"I really think it did. There were a couple of moments on set (where) we'd be laughing a lot and Dane was like, 'I never have fun on set,'" the star recalled.